11.August.2014

So it has recently come to light that a hacker has used illegal means to gain access to  up to 24 million, yes million, League Of Legends accounts and has been using this access to charge players to remove enemy players from the other team to gain an advantage. This is just one of many mainstream MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) games to be victim to hackers. Back in 2012 hackers  gained access to Blizzards World of Warcraft severs and literally killed off thousands of player's characters all in one instant. Now that is a relatively safe form of attack with the only thing you losing out on is a few minutes to respawn, but what of the major hacking attacks in which bank details, personal information and important things are taken by force using cyber attacks. Many Online games now offer improved security for their servers and other also offering an authenticator, which is a small device or phone app that generates a code unique to you that is require to log on. The code usually resets every minute or so.

This brings the question will online games ever be safe from hackers? In my honest opinion there will always be people wanting to exploit the system we see it everywhere, from politicians to bankers to players on GTA, so MMO's will be no different, due to the growing popularity of Esports and online competitions, multiplayer games have risen in popularity and servers have reached the limits in some cases. With the League Of Legends attack it just shows how many players were at risk during the attack, and as a LoL player myself i know it can be frustrating when you disconnect and there is also a temporary ban should you disconnect mid game, so millions of players were at risk to bans or possibly losing their account all together. Which doesn't sound like a lot to people who don't play MMO's but they are growing not only in popularity due to the game but also the social side, i used to play an online RPG purely for the friends i made there. For most the game is the only way to contact these friends and in some cases these friends are relatively close so to lose that all in a sudden can be heart breaking.

There has been risks of hackers since the dawn of online games, with people giving their details out to strangers who will "Power Level" your character or "Get you the best gear" but this is true. 99% of these are scams with the only intention of stealing your account. I know everyone has played Runescape or knows someone who has, that game is huge. Bet you also know someone who was hacked or scammed? It's easier on that because it's mostly kids and teenagers who want to be the best like no one ever was, but it's so common it's scary.

Stay safe in the world of MMO's keep your passwords and details to yourself and store them on paper rather than a word document, and if an authenticator is available i would recommend using it for that extra bit of security, the last thing you want is your months and possibly years of work gone just like that.

~ Mike